Talus is the most common game played in the last city. It uses two six-sided dice. Each die has an element on each face (fire, air, water, earth), plus a tree (representing life) on another. The sixth face is an angel on one die and a demon on the other.
PROCEDURE: The game is played by having one player roll both dice, with the following results:
No Match: Roller Passes
Match: Roller Wins and Passes
2 Trees: Roller Wins Double and Passes
Angel: Roller Wins and Passes
Demon: Roller Pays and Passes
Angel and Tree: Roller Wins and Rolls Again
Demon and Tree: Roller Pays and Rolls Again
Angel and Demon: Double Stakes and Roll Again
Normally, a player only rolls once, then they must pass the dice to the player on their left. If required to roll again, a player can decline, but then they are out of the game. If a player cannot pay, all their remaining money goes to the next player who rolls a win of any kind, and they are out of the game (but do not owe any extra money).
If a player wins on their own roll, they cannot quit the game until the dice come back around again (giving everyone a chance to get their money back). If they do quit, they forfeit all winnings from their last turn. Otherwise, a player can quit at any time.
BETTING: Stakes are copper, silver, gold, or electrum. On a win, all players must pay the roller a copper, silver, gold, or electrum (depending on the stakes). On a pay result, the roller must pay all the other players a copper, silver, gold, or electrum.
On a double win, the roller is paid two coins of the appropriate type by each player. On a double stakes result, the stakes for that set of rolls is doubled. If the roller wins, it is a double win, but if they pay, they pay double. Normal double wins become quadruple wins. The stakes can be doubled any number of times, but the doubling only lasts for a single roller's turn.
CULTURE: Although Talus is generally considered a low-class game, its popularity means that there are a number of sayings derived from it. “They got both trees on that deal” means someone got really lucky or did really well. “We’re playing for electrum now” means the stakes could not be higher.
Trumps is played with four players and a deck of 52 playing cards with four suits: crowns (spades), wands (hearts), coins (diamonds), and swords (clubs). Like a normal deck, each suit has cards numbered 2 to 10, three face cards, and one Angel card (which is higher than the face cards). The face cards are different for each suit: King, Queen, Prince for crowns; Priestess, Magician, Apprentice for wands; Chancellor, Treasurer, Merchant for coins; Valkyrie, Knight, Page for swords.
The initial seating is determined by drawing cards. Highest draw is the initial dealer, with lower draws seated clockwise (in order) from the dealer (break ties by suit in the order shown above). Players sitting across from each other are on the same team.
BIDDING: Each of the four players is dealt 13 cards (face down) for each hand that is played. Starting with the dealer (which rotates clockwise after each hand), each player either bids a number from 1 to 13 or a suit (crowns, wands, coins, swords) instead of a number (a player could also just pass). The dealer must bid at least 1 to start the bidding (they cannot pass or bid a suit on their first bid). Each successive number bid must be higher than any previous number bid.
Once a player bids a suit or passes, they can no longer make bids (they automatically pass). Bidding continues until all four players have bid a suit and/or passed. Note that the suit bids do not determine which suit is trump—they just allow a player to communicate which suit is their best or which suit they want their partner to lead.
PLAYING: The player with the highest number bid gets to “play” the hand, while their partner is the “dummy”. The player to the winning bidder’s left plays a card first and can declare “double” at the same time if they wish. Then the dummy lays out their hand face-up for all to see (sorted by suit and number). The winning bidder then declares which suit is “trump” (or that there is no trump) and plays a card from the dummy’s hand (the dummy sits out the rest of the hand—the bid winner plays their cards for them instead). This is followed by the player on their right, who can also declare “double” as they play (although there is no reason to if their partner already doubled). The winning bidder plays their own card last, and can declare “redouble” if either of their opponents declared “double”. Doubling and redoubling just increases the stakes for that hand (see below).
Each play of a card must be of the same suit as the first card played for a given trick, if possible. The highest card of the first suit played wins the trick, unless a card that belongs to the trump suit (if there is one) was played. If a trump is played, the highest trump wins the trick, regardless of what other cards were played. Play continues, with the winner of the last trick playing the first card of the next trick. Once all cards have been played, the score is determined.
SCORING: If the team that won the bidding gets a number of tricks equal to or greater than the number of their bid, they have won the hand and both players on that team score the following points:
| Bid | Points |
|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | 1 |
| 4 to 6 | 2 |
| 7 | 5 |
| 8 | 10 |
| 9 | 15 |
| 10 | 20 |
| 11 | 30 |
| 12 | 50 |
| 13 | 100 |
Bids played with no trumps score as if the bid was one higher than it actually is (or 150 points for a bid of 13 with no trumps). Each trick taken beyond those needed for the bid scores an additional point.
If the bid fails, the team that won the bid gets nothing, while their opponents get 5 points for each trick the bid failed by. If the hand is doubled, the resulting score is doubled (or quadrupled if it is redoubled).
A game is played to 50 points. A match is made up of three games, but for the second game and third games, the players switch places so that everyone plays a game with each of the other players. Note that the same player is the initial dealer for each game, not just the first one. The player with the highest total score from all three games wins the match.
BETTING: When playing for money, the last place player pays the first place player a silver (or a gold, or an electrum, depending on the stakes). The third place player pays the second place player a coin one size smaller (a copper, a silver, or a gold).
CULTURE: Trumps is considered a high-class game, requiring skill as well as luck (as opposed to just luck in Talus). Sayings derived from trumps include “he got all 13” (did something perfectly) and “she should have redoubled” (should have fought back when challenged).
Ordo is a complex board game played exclusively by alchemists (to see who wins, make an INT vs. INT roll, with a level of disadvantage for each rank above you your opponent is). The board is 4 squares by 4 squares, with 4 boards stacked on top of each other. Ordo is a two-person game, with 32 playing pieces (belonging to neither player). There are 4 types of pieces (corresponding to the elements) with 8 of each type. The pieces start on opposite sides of each of the boards, with earth on the bottom, water on the next board, air on the third board, and fire on the top.
Pieces move by very strange rules based on the position of all of the pieces. Alchemists insist that it all makes perfect sense when you think about it in terms of basic alchemy, but it is almost impossible for a non-alchemist to comprehend. Since the rules for Ordo are based on real physical laws, a new discovery in the field of alchemy can potentially alter the rules. A player could even announce a new discovery during a game, causing the rules to immediately change.
Up to 4 pieces can be moved into an individual square at a time, but only in ratios that would form one of the elements. This changes the way pieces in that square can move. 4 pieces can be put in a single square only if they are all of different types. This forms an Adamant square, which cannot be broken up. Metal squares can be formed by placing pieces on the boards above and below the Adamant square.
The game ends when only Adamant squares are left. This can take anywhere from 12 moves per player (very rare) to 252 moves (also very uncommon). The final position determines the winner.
CULTURE: Ordo is an exclusive, elitist, game and even being able to follow a game is a mark of high intelligence. Alchemists have a variety of sayings derived from the game, but non-players don’t understand them at all. For example, saying “he likes to turn blood and glass into silver” would mean you think that person is too clever for his own good, because that move in Ordo is foolish against a skilled opponent. For most people, the sayings from this game are ones such as “this isn’t Ordo” as an admonition to keep something simple.